Classics

Annual

Homecoming

Reception

Come Join Us!

When

Saturday, October 15th, 2016

After the Parade

Where

Morrison Hall, 3rd Floor

Classics Department

Fall, 2016 Volume X, Issue 1

Baylor University: Department of Classics

Fall Newsletter EX CATHEDRA: FROM THE CHAIR Alden Smith, Chair

Salvete Amatores Studiorum Classicorum,

It was a busy ’15-’16 academic year in Baylor Classics, and we’re off to an even busier

’16-’17. Last year we relished our time with our visiting lecturers. These were Kyle Harper, Sen-

ior Vice President and Provost and Professor of Classics and Letters at the University of Okla-

homa, who spoke on the topic of sexuality (“From Shame to Sin: The Christian Transformation

of Sexual Morality in Late Antiquity,” a lecture co-sponsored with Truett Seminary); Celia

Schultz (Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Michigan), who spoke on Roman

sacrifice and Roman divination; Sophia Papaioannou (Associate Professor of Latin at the Na-

tional and Kapodistrian University of Athens), who reflected on Ovid’s Metamorphoses; Chris-

tian Kopff (Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Colorado Boulder), whose talk,

"Creativity and the Classical Tradition: Virgil's Aeneid and Tolkien's Lord of the Rings,” also

appealed to students outside our own halls. Together with the Department of Art and the All-

britton Institute, the Classics Department co-sponsored Professor Martin Beckmann of McMas-

ter University, who spoke on the development of Roman attitudes toward Mars Ultor. Finally,

Dr. Piergiacomo Petrioli offered some fine reflections on ecclesiastical art and, separately, on

Roman dining at a Roman banquet that Eta Sigma Phi hosted for local high school teachers.

Authentic Roman food was served—(thank you so much, Mrs. Conatser!).

In addition to these exciting lectures, our department hosted a robust Latin Day pro-

gram that featured a lecture by Dr. Ken Jones, our undergraduate program director. Scores of

high school students from around the great state of Texas were in attendance and participated

in the day’s events, especially enjoying the Latin certamen contests.

As you may know, Baylor’s undergraduate program is among the largest (and we

think, finest) in the country. We are frequently asked by local high school teachers and profes-

sors at conferences when and if we will offer any kind of graduate program. We still don’t know

the answer to that question, but we can say that over the past few months we have been consid-

ering it seriously and will be in consultation about it this academic year.

Our current students and recent graduates are doing superbly well. Several are in

their first year of graduate study: Jackson Perry (and wife Megan) at the University of Ken-

tucky, Kara Kopchinski at the University of Kansas, William Stover at Notre Dame University,

Wesley Beck and Mallory Cormack at Tulane University. Current students are sending off pa-

pers to be considered for conferences such as CAMWS.

Baylor in Italy has been expanded to include a live archaeological dig. Students now

are encouraged to stay for the whole summer, excavating in May/June and reading Latin and

studying archaeology in July/August. We are based in Viterbo, and the archaeological dig is

near there in San Giuliano near Barbarano Romano, a suburb of Viterbo. Sites visited on the

trip include Rome, Assisi, Siena, Pienza, Orvieto, Florence, Bologna, Bolsena, Capri, Paestum

and, of course, Pompeii.

If you’re an alumnus/a and you’re thinking about coming back to Waco for Home-

coming, please feel warmly invited to visit the department for snacks and sandwiches on the

third floor of Morrison Hall immediately after the parade. We would love to see you again!

We pray that you are thriving and enjoying the best that life has to offer. Please know

that we are keeping the best traditions of philology in the truest sense of that word alive at Bay-

lor, while branching out into other exciting avenues of research—from ancient social history, to

pedagogy, to archaeology—all focused on the question of what it means faithfully to cultivate a

spirit of warm friendship and gentle humanity in a world too often characterized by sadness

and loss. Admittedly this is a lofty goal, yet one needed now perhaps more than ever.

Curate ut valeatis!

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Caritas ............................................2

Guest Star .......................................2

What Are We Up To? ......................2

Eta Sigma Phi .................................3

What Are We Up To? ......................3

A Dream Come True .......................4

Statue of Odysseus at the Vati-can Museim Picture Credit: Cynthia Liu

Temple of Divine Faustina and Antoninus in the Forum Romanum Picture Credit: Cynthia Liu

Cynthia Liu, University Scholar 2018; Kelsi Ray, University Scholar

2017

Bearing abundant knowledge of

Roman cuisine and an abundantly pun-

gent bottle of Garum, Dr. Piergiacomo

Petrioli visited our department to give a

lecture and attend Eta Sigma Phi’s first

annual Roman Banquet. He delighted

us with some dinner remarks on Ro-

man food. He went to lunch with a few

of our students and had a wonderful

time with them.

This summer while studying

and traveling with Dr. Alden Smith on the Baylor in Italy trip, our

group also had the pleasure of meeting and learning from Dr. Petrioli.

He met us in both Florence and Siena to give us tours of the Uffizi, the

Accademia, and the Cathedral of Siena. Although we were primarily

studying Latin and Roman topography while in Italy, Dr. Petrioli added

even more depth to our experience of Italy through onsite art histo-

ry lectures. Whether he was teaching us about Medieval political propa-

ganda while looking at Lorenzetti's "Good and Bad Government" in the

Sienese Palazzo Pubblico or comparing the Madonnas of Cimabue,

Giotto, and Duccio in the second room of the Uffizi, it was clear that Dr.

Petrioli cared deeply about our understanding of Italian art and culture.

Our group benefited greatly from Dr. Petrioli's generosity, and when I

see my study abroad friends, we still quote some of his hilarious ta-

glines!

CARITAS

GUEST STAR : DR. PETRIOLI

Randolph Davidson, University Scholar 2018 One of the opportunities available to us while in Italy was vol-unteering at a local soup kitchen, Caritas. The Diocese of Viterbo, the town in which we stayed for most of the summer, ran the organization, and local businesses and benefactors donated the food. It was almost entirely operated by the same Italians each week with their ring leader being Leonella, a lovely little old woman who certainly lives up to her namesake ‘little lion.’ The Baylor in Italy crowd sent a group of volun-teers once a week, and I was lucky enough to go three times. Our role was simple: we helped prepare the food, serve the needy, and clean up. Simple tasks, but that’s part of the beauty. It enabled us to help some very special people. By special people I mean the poor of Viterbo and Syrian refugees. I was among our brothers and sisters in Christ who had been forced out of their homes due to their faith. I can honestly say I had no idea that I would be meeting them when I signed up for this trip to Italy, but the surprise was truly a blessing. They’d come up to me and ask for some type of dulce torte, I’d give them the wrong piece, they’d try to point out the right one, I’d give them another wrong piece, and they’d smile, force out a hardly discernable “Thank you” and eat their food. In Italy I was blessed to be able to help, and despite the ac-cent, their gratitude was undeniably evident.

WHAT ARE WE UP TO?

Dr. Simon Burris

Dr. Burris continues to work in papyrology, specifically with the recently discovered Sappho papyri published by him and fellow Baylor facul-ty, Jeff Fish and Dirk Ob-bink.

Dr. Joseph DiLuzio

Dr. J. DiLuzio is currently writing an article on Cicero’s Pro Flacco, and continues working on two books — the text and translation of an illuminated prayerbook once owned by Charles V (with Michelle Brown of Universi-ty College London and Bay-lor University) and a book on Cicero’s rhetoric of legiti-macy in the late Repub-lic. In addition, he now serves as a Faculty Asst. Di-rector in the Honors Pro-gram.

Dr. Meghan DiLuzio

Dr. M. DiLuzio is teaching Greek civilization and begin-ning Latin this fall and pre-paring a course on women and gender in antiquity for the spring. Her first book, A Place at the Altar: Priestess-es in Republican Rome, is due out in October.

Dr. Julia Hejduk

Dr. Hejduk is editing a spe-cial issue for Classical World, “Happy Golden An-niversary, Harvard School!”, and finishing her book, The God of Rome: Jupiter in Augustan Poetry, for Oxford University Press.

Dr. Jeffrey Hunt

This semester I am teaching both Greek and Latin while continuing my research on Hellenistic poetry and serv-ing as assistant director of University Scholars.

2

ETA SIGMA PHI : 2016-17 UPDATE Cynthia Liu, University Scholar 2018

The 2015-2016 school year was quite an accomplished one for

Eta Sigma Phi. With seven papers at conferences and four winners of

national Latin and Greek exams, the club flourished under the imperi-

um of Josh Conatser. This year I am excited to be the new president of

Eta Sigma Phi and I hope we can build on those numbers! Our ranks

are currently over thirty strong and will hopefully grow when Fall Initi-

ation rolls around in October.

In addition to sending more students off to conferences and

increasing our presence (and victories!) in competitions, we will be re-

viving OctHOMERfest as well as adding Saturnalia to our list of fall-

semester events. Throughout the spring semester we will host a few

SimPIZZia for conference-bound undergraduate papers, an event start-

ed last year by Dr. Hejduk, and twice a semester we will host a Greatest

-Movie-Ever-Made night, showing a movie picked by Dr. Burris along

with his commentary. We will once again put on the Latin Day Play un-

der the direction of Dr. White and our Sergeant at Arms, Joseph Lloyd.

Before that, however, we will have the 2nd annual Roman Banquet with

honored guest, Dr. Piergiacomo Petrioli in January. Following the Latin

Day Play we will conduct a Spring Initiation, and the ever popular Take

-a-Dative will be in April. Our officers for the year are:

President – Cynthia Liu

Vice President – Randolph Davidson

Secretary – Hannah Rogers

Treasurer – Megan Sarsfield

Sergeant at Arms – Joseph Lloyd

We are looking forward to a fantastic year!

WHAT ARE WE UP TO?

Dr. Kenneth Jones

This past year Dr. Jones has served as Undergraduate Program Director for Clas-sics and is in the opening stages of writing a biography of Mark Antony.

Dr. Blanche McCune

Dr. McCune is excited to be starting her third year at Baylor teaching Latin and Great Texts; her most recent research includes a forth-coming article in Classical Quarterly on the character "Chloe" in Horace's Odes, two other papers, one on Prometheus in the Odes and Epodes and the other on problems in Odes 1.3, and a paper to be given at CAMWS-SS in October on the Satires 1.2.

Dr. Daniel Nodes

Dr. Dan Nodes is continuing his research into post-classical literary culture with a forthcoming critical edi-tion of the Samarites, a Latin tragicomedy from the early sixteenth century. He is now preparing the first edition of a collection of sermons in the ‘modern’ style from a unique 14th century manu-script.

Eta Sigma Phi, First Annual Roman Banquet, Picture Credit: Jonah Hensley

3

“Nil ego contulerim iucundo sanus amico.” -Horace, Satires 1.v.44

A DREAM COME TRUE: THE FORUM ROMANUM Jamie Wheeler, University Scholar 2019

The Roman Forum! I cut my teeth on Roman history, and one of my

favorite books as a child featured a big two-page-spread map of Rome, centered

on the Forum. I used to search for the different buildings on the map and imag-

ine walking from one to another. As I grew up, I read Cicero in high school and

then took college Latin, and brought to life the image of the consul denouncing

Catiline in the Curia. The area of the Forum was like Middle Earth or Narnia for

me: a place of the imagination.

Last summer, I went there.

It shouldn’t have been my favorite day of the trip, it really shouldn’t.

My favorite day should have been the day at the mineral spa or eating caprese

salad in Capri or swimming in the Mediterranean or even one of the later days

in Rome, when the weather wasn’t as hot and we didn’t walk as far. But I can’t

help it. Seeing the Roman Forum in the flesh—maybe “in the stone” would be

more appropriate—was like nothing else could ever be. It was just like I’d imag-

ined it, and completely different. Splendid columns towered out of the ruins,

like in every picture. I pulled out my camera (did I ever put it away, while we

were there?). When I looked down, there was a tiny purple flower growing out

of the wall of Julius Caesar’s temple. Was it the victory of nature over the works

of man? The triumph of humility over Caesar’s hubris? Or just a different kind

of beauty among the beautiful monuments? It was a flower. But when I looked

at that flower, I knew it was all real. I was there. Nothing but standing in the

midst of it could make history so urgent, so present, so real.

MAILING ADDRESS HERE

PLEASE PLACE STAMP HERE

Department of Classics Baylor University

One Bear Place #97352 Waco, TX 76798

Phone: 254-710-1399 Fax: 254-710-1367

Flower in the Forum Romanum Picture Credit: Jamie Wheeler